Prevalence of pre-high blood pressure and high blood pressure among non-overweight children and adolescents using international blood pressure references in developed regions in China

Background: There is a lack of data on the prevalence of pre-high blood pressure (PreHBP) and high blood pressure (HBP), based on recent international blood pressure references, in non-overweight children and adolescents.

Aim: To describe the prevalence of PreHBP and HBP in non-overweight children and adolescents in developed regions of China.

Subjects and methods: In total, 588?097 non-overweight children and adolescents aged 6–17?years from the National Surveys on Chinese Students’ Constitution and Health in 2015 were included.

Results: The prevalence of PreHBP was 13.41% and subjects in urban areas had a higher prevalence of PreHBP (14.14%) than those in rural areas (12.92%). Subjects in regions with a high (13.56%) or moderate (13.61%) socioeconomic status showed a higher prevalence of PreHBP than those in regions with a relatively low socioeconomic status (12.76%). A similar pattern was found for the prevalence of HBP, and the prevalence of HBP was 18.25% for all participants, 20.55% for subjects in urban areas, 16.71% in rural areas, 18.76% in high socioeconomic areas, 18.62% in moderate socioeconomic areas and 16.70% in relatively low socioeconomic areas.

Conclusion: A large proportion of non-overweight children and adolescents had elevated blood pressure and there were urban–rural and socioeconomic disparities in the prevalence of elevated blood pressure.